


After Recurrence

by missedtheferry



Series: Recurrence [2]
Category: Oxenfree
Genre: Gen, Tags will be added/updated as necessary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 16:06:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9664814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missedtheferry/pseuds/missedtheferry
Summary: Leave was, in fact, possible - but what happens afterward?





	

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a sequel to Eternal Recurrence - I'd recommend reading that first, so you have a frame of reference for this one.
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoy!

It’s quiet in the house. Alex tiptoes her way downstairs, avoiding all the spots that she knows will creak if she puts any weight on them, her feet in socks whispering across the carpet. She’s got her phone flashlight on, half-hidden by her hand, until she reaches the lowest floor and hits the lightswitch.

The lights flicker on, their white-yellow hue causing her to breathe a sigh of relief. Not red. Not that horrible color she was faced with for…

_No. No, I’m not thinking about that._

She hears a rustling in the living room, only half-lit-up by the kitchen light, and jumps, pressing her back to the pantry door.

“Hey, it’s okay, it’s just me,” Jonas says quietly.

Alex breathes out a sigh of relief, slumping against the counter. “Sorry,” she mumbles.

“Still adjusting?”

“Yeah.” She lets out another sigh, tracing the pattern of the granite with her finger. “I just – it’s so strange. The half of me that was, y’know, in the void? Not used to having an actual body. But we – her and I – we’re the same person…so it shouldn’t be strange, right?”

Jonas shrugs. “I think this is a first, honestly. You’re ushering in a new era of supernatural occurrences.”

“That’s comforting,” she says, voice edged with sarcasm. She picks herself up off the counter, wandering over to the fridge, opening the door and peering inside.

He wanders over to join her. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“Yeah.”

“Looking for a midnight snack? Or…I should say, two a.m. snack.”

Nodding, she pushes some tubs of cream cheese, sour cream, and hummus out of the way of… “Aha,” she proclaims, producing a tub of cookie dough. “Perfect.”

“Baking at this hour? You’re gonna wake everyone up.”

“Psh. The cookies will make up for it if I do.”

He shrugs. “Fair point.”

“So.” Alex is spreading foil over a baking sheet now. “Couldn’t sleep either?”

“No. I mean, it’s been two weeks, but it feels like yesterday.”

“I know the feeling.”

“Times infinity?”

“Times infinity.” Her voice is a bit hesitant, shaky, as if she doesn’t particularly want to address that topic at the moment.

He clears his throat. “If you ever want to talk about it, I’m here.”

Alex smiles faintly, scooping out tablespoons of dough and setting them out on the sheet. “Thanks, Jonas.”

 

* * *

 

The cookies do not, in fact, wake everyone up. Alex and Jonas enjoy them alone, in a silence that speaks volumes of what they’ve seen, what they’ve been through together.

Each of them silently wishes the others were there too. The comfort of more people who _know_ would be the best thing for them.

But it’s just Jonas and Alex, and honestly, in some ways, neither of them minds. They’re really, truly, brother and sister now – if not by blood, by shared experience, caring about one another. An unbreakable bond, forged in ghostly fire.

 

* * *

  

Alex runs into Ren the next morning at the local coffee place, about forty-five minutes before school starts. Ren looks exhausted – dark circles under his eyes, hands fidgeting in his pockets, the whole nine yards of sleep deprivation.

She gives him a pointed Look, and he shrugs. “You know me too well.”

 _Millennia too well_ , she thinks with an inward sigh. Aloud, she says, “I don’t have to know you well to see how tired you are, Ren.”

He shrugs again. “You don’t look so good yourself.”

“Been better.”

“You used to be more talkative, too.”

“Yeah, well.” Now it’s her turn to shrug. “I used to be a lot of things.”

“Right. The weird – brain transplant thing.”

She lets out a loud laugh in spite of herself. “That – that’s not what happened, Ren! Not at all.”

“Eh. Semantics.”

She gives it up. “So. When are you planning on actually getting some sleep?”

Squinting at the floor, Ren hesitates to answer for a moment. “When I can close my eyes without seeing red,” he replies at last.

“Ah.”

Neither of them speaks again. Ren just gives her a small wave when he leaves the shop.

 

* * *

  

About two weeks after the fact, after neither he nor Alex (or Ren, according to her) is able to sleep hardly at all, Jonas texts the whole group, asking if they want to meet up.

Unsurprisingly, Clarissa and Nona can’t sleep, either. They do, in fact, want to meet.

Alex’s mom and Jonas’ dad are out of town, so they all head over there. The night they’ve picked is quiet; a bit of rain has rolled in, and the faint fall of raindrops is calming for all of them. If the night had been dead silent, they would all have been on edge.

“So,” Clarissa says, curled up on a corner of the couch. Nona’s seated between her and Ren, and turns to face her as she speaks. “You guys too, huh?”

Nona fiddles with her sleeve; clearly she and Clarissa have already discussed things. The others nod.

“There’s got to be something we can do,” Jonas says.

“I – ” Alex pauses mid-sentence, then shuts her mouth and stares down at her clasped hands. “Never mind.”

“What is it?”

“I – uh. It’s just…in these sorts of universes – the ones where things happen like they did? They all sort of – blended together, I guess. I was going to say I remembered _how_ we managed to get some rest – I’ve _seen_ it…but it’s…been too long.”

Clarissa shivers a bit, but says nothing beyond “Oh.”

“You have to remember _something,_ ” Ren says, but is immediately elbowed by Jonas, _hard_. He squalks indignantly, glaring.

“Guys, please,” Alex pleads. This shuts them up.

“We still need to figure this out,” says Nona. “We’ve got finals coming up.”

Alex wants to laugh at that, but doesn’t quite have it in her – even though, after everything, finals are such a small worry to her.

(As a matter of fact, she’s taken said finals already. They’ve blurred together, but she remembers the general idea well enough.)

After a minute’s thought, Jonas speaks up again. “We can start with this weekend. Everyone but us two “ – he gestures to himself and Alex – “are out of town, so the house is ours if we want it.”

“What good’s that gonna do?” Clarissa asks, frowning.

“Well, I mean, we spent a lot of time on the island either alone or fighting, right?”

“Among other things,” Clarissa mumbles under her breath, almost too quiet for the others to hear.

“So, maybe if we’re _not_ alone and _not_ fighting, things will…go better. I dunno.”

“Yeah – yeah, that could work!” Ren’s gotten his trademark enthusiasm going. For a moment Alex feels like the kid is going to produce some of his ‘magic’ brownies and offer them to everyone.

“It’s worth a try,” Nona concedes. Ren beams at her.

“I guess,” says Clarissa.

Alex simply nods.

“Then it’s settled,” announces Ren, before Jonas can so much as open his mouth. (Said Jonas looks disgruntled, but seeing Alex looking a bit relieved, he lets it go.)

 

* * *

  

They set up in the living room. Jonas and Clarissa carry down armfuls of blankets and pillows. Ren pesters Alex as she rummages around in the kitchen for snacks; Nona leans on the counter, chiming in every so often.

Once they’re settled in comfortably – several bowls of popcorn and a fresh batch of Alex’s now-patented insomnia cookies sitting out for them – Jonas opens a cabinet.

“Maybe we should watch something,” he offers. “Any requests?”

_Alex just shrugs; Ren suggests something exciting, with plenty of non-ghost-related action to keep them all distracted. Or Ren suggests some sappy romantic flick, because what’s more different than ghosts than a cheesy romance? Or it’s Clarissa who offers the suggestion. Or Nona. Sometimes Jonas himself just pulls out a movie and starts it up, without asking anyone. Or Alex offers a suggestion of something, anything, nothing._

_They start the movie. Or they don’t. Or they’re not in the living room at all. Alex is by herself. Or Jonas is with her. Or Alex is upstairs, and Jonas is downstairs, or Ren and Alex are down in the living room, or Clarissa of all people is with Alex, or Jonas, or – or –_

“Alex! ALEX!”

She shakes her head, startled. “What?!”

“You zoned out there for a minute,” Jonas tells her, frowning. He has a hand on her shoulder. “You all right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just…memories.”

He’s still frowning, unconvinced.

Alex shrugs his hand off of her and pulls out a movie at random. “Let’s just watch this one. No need to worry about me.”

“Fine.”

They pop the DVD in and watch in relative silence for a while – broken only by Ren’s occasional excited commentary.

Jonas watches Alex out of the corner of his eye, but she seems present and accounted for.

Eventually, they all sleep. The DVD menu repeats and repeats and repeats in the darkness.

 


End file.
